Wednesday, April 26, 2006

I’ve had plenty of e-mails from fans suggesting if we had an owner we could have kept Esteban Loaiza and signed A.J. Burnett, Kevin Millwood and/or Jarrod Washburn. So, for a mere $35 million for this year alone, you could have had a starting pitching rotation that is a combined 2-9.

In fact, two of our signings, Billy Traber and Tony Armas, have as many wins as those pitchers combined. Obviously, a few weeks of play is not a good barometer. And if healthy, those pitchers will improve. However, injuries to Burnett and Millwood have to concern the Blue Jays and Rangers, respectively, who have committed large dollars for the next five years.

...The bottom line? Get pitching anyway you can; pitching is how you win.

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"Here's a really stupid way of looking at our pitching situation, and here's why it's stupid, but by placing the stupid way (which is, not incidentally, my way) first, I'll give greater weight to it so it sounds like the better way...

"Oh, and here's rundown of all the possible ways you could pick up a pitcher, complete with bad examples of those choices. Mulder for Haren and Barton... a great trade for the Cards! Delgado for Petit... a great value trade by the Marlins! Let's cherry pick the best successes among injury reclamation projects to demonstrate what a great risk injured pitchers are!

"I'm such a great GM. Bow down before me to receive my wisdom."

If Kasten doesn't fire him within the first week, my estimation of Stan's abilities as a baseball professional is going to take a big nosedive.

Exactly. He's such a self-promoting sack of crap. He's like a crappy street magician who keeps dropping coins out of one hand because he's sweating too much, so he tries to distract you by waving a scarf with his other hand and telling you that you're pretty.

Also no mention of Darrell Rasner or Brian Lawrence. Although, in the one bright spot of the article, he doesn't go waving the bloody shirt by championing Loiaza or Carrasco, either... his head isn't so big that he's ready to cite himself.

I’ve had plenty of e-mails from fans suggesting if we had an owner we could have kept Esteban Loaiza and signed A.J. Burnett, Kevin Millwood and/or Jarrod Washburn. So, for a mere $35 million for this year alone, you could have had a starting pitching rotation that is a combined 2-9.

In fact, two of our signings, Billy Traber and Tony Armas, have as many wins as those pitchers combined.

I'll give him a pass on Lawrence though. It didn't work out, and there were legit non-cost reasons for not MRIing him. That's the one case where he's actually traded a strength for a weakness. "Sure! We need more secondbaseman!"

Further, I have additional e-mails suggesting that if the organization had drafted better over the last seven years, our rotation would have been championship caliber by now. Certainly, this is possible and improvement is needed. However, here is an alarming reality: the Braves, Cardinals, Mets, Red Sox and Yankees have 25 pitchers combined in their starting rotations; of those 25, only two were drafted and developed by their organization -- Brian Bannister, a seventh-round pick of the Mets and Kyle Davies, a fourth-round pick of the Braves.

is contradicted by the next paragraph:

Trades are the best way to improve pitching. The best is the “Proven Pitcher Trade.” For example, a year ago, the Cardinals traded for Mark Mulder and the Braves traded for Tim Hudson. Oakland had to reduce payroll and the Braves and Cardinals had enough talent in the minors to make the trades. Without the best farm systems, you can’t make these deals. That’s why scouting and player development is so important.

The Red Sox have Beckett BECAUSE they HAVE a good farm system with which to make trades. Does he seriously think Florida would have done the deal without getting Anibal Sanchez? Does he discount how Oakland has created their pitching staff?

Oh, I don't know about that. I still manage to get a small sense of perverse satisfaction out of it. However, if the new ownership renews his contract... then it will be absolutely impossible to generate humor from the situation. We would be placed in the position of Pirates fans, who truly have nothing to look forward to until ownership/management is drastically changed.

You're a Nats fan, Grunthos? I am genuinely sorry. The team has been getting the #### end of the stick seemingly forever. With competent management and ownership, the Nats should at least be competitive in the tough NL East.

Not to mention the absurd kickback deal MLB struck with Peter Angelos....

I'm a Nats-fan-in-waiting. I have not embraced the team as yet, and will not until Bowden is gone. But since I haven't really had a team to root for since I abandoned the Orioles circa 1993 (what with moves and grad school and poverty and all that), I've gotten somewhat impatient for him to be fired so that I can start up the new tradition.

The genuine Nats fans who jumped on board when the team first arrived do deserve sympathy, however. The entire situation has been farcically stupid for far too long.

Not to mention the absurd kickback deal MLB struck with Peter Angelos....

Oh, yeah, then there's that, too. Just think, 20 years from now we'll be able to kick back and laugh about it...

Wow... just to back up his words with actions, Bowden has now re-acquired Zach Day off waivers from Colorado. Day is currently injured. Frank never liked him. Apparently Wiki Gonzalez was DFA'd to make room. WTF?